Eastern Canada’s Trucking Newspaper Since 1981
January 2020
Delivering daily news at trucknews.com
Volume 39, Issue 12
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Auditor general blasts MTO
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By Abdul Latheef TORONTO, ONTARIO Ontario’s auditor general has sharply criticized the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) over falling roadside commercial vehicle inspections, saying not enough is being done to ensure road safety. The rebuke came in the annual report released on Dec. 4 by Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk. The audit found that there are many opportunities for the ministry to improve overall safety through its Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement Program. The report said one of the most important activities the ministry performs to ensure safety is its roadside inspections of commercial vehicles. “However, we found that between 2014 and 2018, the number of inspections the ministry conducted decreased by 22%, from over 113,000 in 2014 to fewer than 89,000 in 2018, because the ministry was unable to fill enforcement officer vacancies, and because the majority of enforcement officers did not meet their indiContinued on page 9
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Canadian ELDs must be third-party certified when the mandate takes effect in June, 2021, but Transport Canada has yet to certify the certifiers.
Certifiable concerns Third-party certification of ELDs is a no-brainer, experts agree, but it raises some challenges By James Menzies TORONTO, ONTARIO Canada’s electronic logging device (ELD) mandate has one major difference from that in the U.S. – the requirement for third-party certification of the devices. However, there’s growing concern that the requirement could delay implementation of the rule, set to come into effect in June, 2021. The trucking industry in Canada and the U.S. has lauded Transport Canada for requiring third-party certification of ELDs, after the industry in the U.S. was inundated with devices, including some that willfully allowed data to be overwritten, sidestepping hours-of-service rules. There are about 500 self-certified ELDs on the market in the U.S., yet the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has deemed few to be non-compliant. With about 18 months remaining before Canada’s ELD law is to be enforced, Transport Canada and the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) have yet to certify the certifiers, or define the certification requirements. It’s raising concerns within the industry, and fueling skep-
ticism about the government’s ability to implement the ELD mandate on schedule. “There’s no test plan yet,” Scott Stofer, director of product management with Orbcomm told Truck News in an interview. “And there’s no formal process at this point for certifying.” Stofer recently attended a meeting of the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA), which is responsible for creating the ELD technical standard. There, he learned the first draft of the test plan was rejected and sent back for a re-do. He points out the test plan must first be approved, then certifiers selected before the certification process can begin. Orbcomm voluntarily had its ELD certified by Montreal, Que.-based PIT Group before the U.S. regulation was implemented. It was about a six-week process. PIT Group has expressed an interest in being a certifying body in Canada, and agrees the delay in developing a test plan is a concern. Adime Bonsi, researcher, technology testing with PIT, said, “At this point, Transport Canada is working with the Standards Council of Canada to develop the accreditaContinued on page 8